RANCHO MIRAGE, California – Former first lady Betty Ford received birthday messages along with her get-well cards Friday as she remained hospitalized following surgery.
Ford, who turns 89 on Sunday, underwent an unspecified operation earlier in the week and was "recovering well" at Eisenhower Medical Center, her office said.
"The President and Mrs. Bush wish Mrs. Ford all the best and a speedy recovery," White House spokeswoman Emily Larimore said.
The staff at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Michigan also sent messages.
"We have sent to her a combined Easter, birthday and get well card from the staff," library director Elaine Didier said Friday.
Eisenhower Medical Center spokeswoman Lee Fowler and the office of the late Gerald R. Ford said Friday there was no more information about the former first lady. The Ford home is about a mile from the hospital.
After her husband's death on Dec. 26 at age 93, Mrs. Ford went on an arduous cross-country trip accompanying his body for services in California, Washington, D.C., and his final resting place in Grand Rapids, Mich.
First lady from 1974 to 1977, she came to earn wide respect through her frankness as she battled breast cancer, arthritis and addictions to drugs and alcohol.
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